Another Legal Hurdle for Eugene?

Mathieu Eugene’s opponents have come up with a new legal argument to try to prevent him from running again for that City Council seat in Brooklyn’s 40th District that he won, but then was unable to occupy because of his inability to prove that he was a resident.

Heartbeat News, a Brooklyn-based paper, quotes an advisor to another candidate in the race, Wellington Sharpe, arguing that it might be illegal for Eugene to run to fill a vacancy that, technically, he himself created.

According to the paper, Burke said, “Eugene’s declination of the office and his refusal to execute his oath of office conclusively brought about a vacancy in that office,” and, “This circumstance appears to renders[sic] ineligible as a candidate to contest the Special Election that is called to fill the said vacancy he created. I submit that he is ineligible.”

Another election lawyer I spoke with today said that statute usually refers to election scenarios different than the one in Brooklyn’s 40th district, where Eugene declined to prove to the Council that he met residency requirements to hold office after the City’s Board of Elections declared him the winner of a special election in February.

The final list of candidates will be determined on April 11 when the city’s Board of Elections verifying who submitted enough valid signatures on their petitions.

Messages left this morning for a lawyer and spokesman for Eugene’s campaign were not immediately returned. (I know. It’s the holidays.)

Also worth keeping in mind…All this arguing is over a term that ends on December 31. More on that here.